New terrestrial biological constraints for Antarctic glaciation

Abstract

Ice sheet modelling of Antarctica supports a generally accepted view that most, if not all, currently ice free ground would have been obliterated at the LGM or previous maxima. However, several recently emerged and complementary strands of biological research cannot be reconciled with this reconstruction of Antarctic glacial history, and therefore challenge the existing paradigm. In this review, we summarise and synthesise evidence across these lines of research. This evidence points to large elements of the contemporary Antarctic terrestrial biota having a long continuous, but isolated, history within the region. These examples relate to all timescales relevant to Antarctic continental evolution (Gondwana breakup to Holocene), and are spatially distributed across much of the continent.